How do street lights threaten the lives of insects by starving them?

Although it may sound surprising at first, street lights are of great importance to people around the world, especially insects. It seems to disrupt the order of nature.

Bride, How is this possible? let’s see.

According to a team of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the world’s insect population is decreasing day by day.

The reason for this is that street lighting, which contributes to better night vision, and insects. look for food or go hungry in different places be an obstacle. To investigate this issue in depth, the team is collecting samples of the two most common tree species found in Beijing.

These two tree species, Japanese pagoda and green ash, survive along constantly lit main roads. Scientists in every tree area measures the light level and compares these with the properties of leaves.

These characteristics include trees size, water content, nutrients, durability and chemical defenses It is located.

Research shows that artificial light at night increases the resilience of leaves.

Because the leaves are more durable, insects can use them as food. cannot benefit from it It means. So the harder a leaf is, the less damage it will receive from insects. Therefore, insects cannot benefit from the leaves.

In this case, it appears that trees use most of the energy they receive from street lights to build stronger defenses against insects. In addition, the leaves cannot absorb nutrients, different problems It also entails.

For example, lower levels of herbivores mean fewer herbivorous insects, which in turn means fewer predators. With the decrease in the number of insects and insect-eating birds results.

In short, this break in the food chain reduced insect activityThis ensures that the nutrient cycle at different levels of the ecosystem does not proceed as it should.

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